Resolution on the outcome of the Intergovernmental Conference

The European Parliament adopted a deeply deploring the failure of the European Council to reach an overall agreement on the draft constitutional treaty, and the evident lack of focus on the common European interest. It noted once again the failure of the Intergovernmental Conference method and pointed to the effectiveness and efficiency of the European Convention. Parliament insisted that the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, as it resulted from the Convention, must remain the basis for the final and overall IGC agreement without new points being opened. Failure to resolve the issue of the enlarged Union's capability to act could result in a 'variable-speed Europe', in a return to the intergovernmental method or even in the fragmentation of the Union. Parliament asked the Italian presidency to publish a detailed list of the agreements it claims were reached at the Brussels meeting of the IGC on 12-13 December. It called on the forthcoming Irish Presidency to reconvene the IGC at the level of the Foreign Ministers in January 2004 in order to agree a procedure for making progress and to consolidate all the texts approved so far at the IGC. The Irish Presidency should set a date - before 1 May 2004 - for an IGC meeting at the level of the Heads of State or Government in order to decide on the remaining issues.�